MTA, Port Authority heads to keep jobs

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has decided to keep the heads of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in their jobs, according to a source close to the governor.

Jay Walder will be retained as MTA chairman and chief executive and Christopher Ward as executive director of the Port Authority, the source said. Both men have been informed that they will be staying on.

In Mr. Walder's case, the decision was expected: He is regarded as one of the top public transportation experts in the world, and the governor credits Mr. Walder with finding efficiencies worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Mr. Walder was nominated for the post by Mr. Cuomo's predecessor, David Paterson, in July 2009, and confirmed two months later by the state Senate.

Mr. Walder also has a buyout clause in his contract worth several hundred thousand dollars, although that had nothing to do with the governor's decision, the source said.

Mr. Ward's future was more uncertain, in part because unlike Mr. Walder, the Port Authority director has no contract. Technically he answers to the authority's board members, but essentially he serves at the pleasure of the governor of New York. With the construction schedule tight to have the 9/11 Memorial ready for the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks this year, Mr. Cuomo sees this year as a crucial one for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, and no one knows the intricacies of that complex endeavor better than Mr. Ward. He has been credited for hammering out an agreement with developer Larry Silverstein to get the project back on track after years of delays during the Pataki and Spitzer administrations.

Mr. Ward took the helm of the Port Authority in May 2008 following a stint as managing director of the General Contractors Association of New York. He previously served in two posts at the Port Authority from 1997 to 2002 and is a former city Department of Environmental Protection commissioner.

Mr. Cuomo had kept both decisions close to the vest. Neither man was given any indication during the first three weeks of Mr. Cuomo's governorship that they would be kept on.

The two appointments are arguably the most important that a governor has. They are also among the three best-paid jobs in the administration, along with that of State University of New York chancellor. All three posts carry salaries in excess of $300,000.

Mr. Walder runs an authority with an annual budget of more than $10 billion, while Mr. Ward's spends over $7 billion annually. Mr. Walder faced immediate financial challenges upon taking over the MTA, the world's largest public transit agency, where he had worked earlier in his career before a stint at London's transit system. He had hoped to implement sweeping changes to modernize the MTA as he did in London, but has had to focus mostly on cutting the MTA budget to compensate for massive revenue shortfalls.

The decisions to keep the Port and MTA chiefs are not likely to draw many objections, except from the Transport Workers Union, which has attempted to demonize Mr. Walder in an effort to gain leverage in contract negotiations. Mr. Walder has been widely praised by transit advocacy groups.

Mr. Ward led a tense and prolonged negotiation with World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein before an agreement was finally reached on how to proceed with the rebuilding. Some observers credited Mr. Ward with not caving in to demands by Mr. Silverstein—with support from the Bloomberg administration—to have the Port serve as a financial backstop in the event that the developer could not find tenants.

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